HARTMAN REIT BUYS SAN ANTONIO’S ENERGY PLAZA I & II

January 7, 2015

San Antonio’s Energy Plaza I & II office buildings traded hands this week when an affiliate of the Houston-based Hartman REIT snapped up the 180k SF as part of the REIT’s plans to grow in the Alamo city.

Hartman Income REIT’s Dave Wheeler (right with Cushman & Wakefield’s Scot Farber) tells us the two-building complex has been on Hartman’s radar since late 2013. The occupancy and rents are good in the buildings and the pricing was favorable, he says. The challenge with this property was the loan assumption that was part of the deal. Most buyers want to engineer their own capital stack, Dave says, so many of the competitors for the property were trying to put in less equity. Hartman, however, put down a significant down payment to buy the property with low leverage, which gave the REIT the edge over the competition, Dave says.

The Energy Plaza buildings are 95% occupied and anchored by a long-term lease with the San Antonio Petroleum Club. The property’s twostory atrium-style lobbies were remodeled in 2013. CBRE’s Todd Mills and Carrie Caesar repped the seller, a subsidiary of Accesso Partners. Dave and colleagues Julian Kwok and Russell Turman repped the buyer.

Hartman also owns the 182k SFWalzem Plaza retail center (pictured) in San Antonio and is looking for more opportunities, Dave tells us. He’s heading to San Antonio next week to look at three more properties on the REIT’s shortlist. His team has been touring and reviewing assets in the area for more than 18 months. Hartman acquired about $55Min assets in San Antonio, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston in 2014 and Dave expects about the same amount of investment or more this year. He didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions, he tells us. “When I want to do something, I just do it,” he says.